I Got Banned from Hinge for Using It as a Startup Billboard—Here’s What Happened

Hey,

I got banned from Hinge for building an ad funnel for Sam’s List.

@notkimigreen

Day 19 building the yelp for financial professionals. I generated hundreds of thousands of impressions for free using hinge. Great for tar... See more

Thursday night. I'm lying in bed, trying to quiet my brain for once.

But as any startup founder will tell you, that’s precisely when your most unhinged, delirious ideas show up.

That night, mine was this: "What if I downloaded Hinge and used it as a billboard for Sam's List?"

I’ve downloaded Hinge before, so I know my way around this platform. 😉 

Once every 4 months, I download Hinge, peek at who’s out there, then ghost the app within 24 hours.

But this time was different. 

I wasn’t in it for love. I was in it for chaos baby!

For context, Sam’s List is like Yelp for accountants, fractional CFOs, and financial advisors, but with transparency. It’s a review-based marketplace where clients write honest reviews about the professionals they’ve worked with and also find someone to get in touch with.

I’ll share more about the Hinge-prospect responses in a second, but one of the founders on Hinge told me:

“I go with recommendations from friends and advisors. I'm very unlikely to work with a service provider unless a trusted person recommends them. Doesn't matter if more expensive."

Ignoring their poor grammar…

All of our reviews are from real clients, and we link to their Twitter and LinkedIn accounts so you can see exactly who’s vouching for who.

Anyways

Setting up the Hinge account was easy.

I added some “cute” photos, filled out 3 conversational prompts, and boom, we’re live!

At first, I used standard photos of myself and filled out all of the prompts.

But then the dusty lightbulb in my brain went off and I realized I could use Apple’s image editor tool and also write an ad on top of my images as well.

Haha this is SO EASY!

My prompts looked a little something like this:

One of my prompts said:

"We’ll get along if….You own a $1M+ business and want to outsource your accounting and finance and use samslist.co to make it happen :)."

Do you think I’m clear enough about my intentions?

But it gets better.

Hinge lets you record a voice memo. So I did. Obviously

In 15 seconds, I dropped a full ad:

"First round is on me if….You’re an entrepreneur, recently exited your company, and you used Sam's List to find your financial advisor or to find your next accounting firm to outsource your accounting to."

That one worked great for engagement as seen below from a founder who said:

“haha love the hustle. I recently sold my startup, and would have absolutely loved using your marketplace. I’m working on my next business, will sign up to samslist.co right away”

Sam’s List Hinge conversion count: 1

But wait!

Hinge has so many features, I did 1 more thing!

Hinge allows video.

Guess who’s been posting daily on TikTok and YouTube Shorts since December?

Me. Kimi. Cofounder #3 & CEO of Sam’s List.

So of course I uploaded one of my Sam's List TikToks.

@notkimigreen

I’m building the Yelp for financial professionals (Samslist) to bring more transparency to this space. If you’ve had a good or bad experie... See more

At this point, my Hinge profile has turned into a full-blown multimedia ad campaign, something a 9-5 corporate marketer would’ve spent thousands and way too many hours creating.

For the first 10 hours, I just sat back and let the men come to me.

As a lady should.

But…most of these duds were just complimenting my looks.

Thank you, but not now, Chad.

That's when my marketing brain kicked in.

I couldn’t rely on these horned-up men to take initiative. I had to go to them.

So I did.

I started reaching out exclusively to profiles that contained keywords like "founder," “CEO” "entrepreneur," "business owner at ___" and slid into their DMs pitching Sam's List.

The only way out for these men was to acknowledge me. It was a win-win.

Except for my pride…that’s so far gone.

Then, a few hours later, I’m on a call with a Fractional CFO. We’re going on hour 2.5 out of 3 and I interrupt.

“Hey, I’m sorry but I just did this weird thing on Hinge. I’m not ignoring you, but I really need to check my phone.”

And then I explain to him what I’m doing on Hinge and he’s like: “You should 100% expand your pool to include women, not just men.”

Genuis. I love it.

Except I have next to no interst in dating women. (but i love y’all so much 🌈 )

But…entrepreneurship doesn’t see gender right?

So, for the sake of “ad” impressions & conversions, I flipped my settings to "men and women."

😮‍💨 

Big mistake.

Turns out, women read.

And they weren’t here for my nonsense. Just silence and a ruined conversion rate.

So I revoked their viewing rights and went back to men.

Things picked up again.

Some guys were genuinely curious. "What’s Sam's List?"

DUDE. Just type it into your browser.

But I told them more.

A few even gave product feedback.

“Why would I use your site instead of asking my friend?”

“Your quiz is confusing.”

Would I do this again? Well, Hinge banned me on day 3.

On Sunday morning, I woke up to an email and a notification from Hinge saying it had come to their attention I was violating their terms of service and my account was permanently banned.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: "Is business so terribly bad you’ve resorted to pimping yourself out on Hinge?"

Short answer: NO. How rude!!!

But also, listen, we’re bootstrapped.

I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m on record saying that at least 12248763 times.

I don’t know the rules. I don’t report to anybody. I thought it would be funny. And the worst case scenario?

1. A guy sees my profile and thinks, "Wtf is this girl doing?" But he still saw an ad for Sam's List. That’s a win & 1 more person who knows about us who previously didn’t.

2. A woman sees my profile and thinks, "Oh? Kimi likes girls?" Now I’m in trouble…(but again…im here for y’all just not my vibe🌈 )

The economics made sense too. Consider this:

• I spent $0.

• The average cost-per-click (CPC) for "financial advisor" on Google Ads ranges from $20–$60.

• "Accountant" and related terms? Even more expensive at $30–$70+ per click.

• Keywords like "fractional CFO" or "startup accountant" are around $25–45+ CPC.

• Facebook Ads in B2B often run $5–20 per click.

• Running a digital video ad like my profile would cost $2,000–5,000+ in production alone.

So yeah, I got 55,000+ impressions total. Free.

I’m not here to give you marketing advice and tell you to follow these 10 steps to generate 1,000 leads in 50 hours.

With a nearly nonexistent marketing budget, I was willing to just sling it.

And to the men who added me on LinkedIn after our convo, hey :)

Go to samslist.co. Use it to find your next accountant, fractional CFO, or financial advisor. Not a date.

And stay out of financial bed with the wrong person!

👋 Kimi

P.S. I’m off the grid (no meetings) this week. I’m heads down working on getting more site traffic & finalizing our new model. So if you need me, DM me on TikTok. haha

👆️ One more thing:

1. If you run a community, newsletter, or podcast with an audience of founders & you’re looking for sponsors, I’d love to talk with ya!

2. I’m making short-form content with accountants, fractional CFOs, and financial advisors. If you want in on the fun, shoot me an email by replying here and I’ll share more. Basically you’ll get a free ad for you/your company.

3. I’m in the market for backlinks. If you’d like to help with this, let’s set something up!

4. If your company serves accountants, fractional CFOs, or financial advisors, or you have a product that business owners love and you want to get in front of them, I’m finalizing a partner page with exclusive discounts for this group. HMU

If you want to keep up, I’m documenting everything about Sam’s List:

🎙️ TikTok

🐤 Twitter

✍️ LinkedIn

@notkimigreen

How to make money 2025 well for starters if you’re a tech employee or startup employee and you have equity, you could benefit from speakin... See more

P.S.

If you want to help out…

If your current accountant, fractional CFO, or financial advisor is on Sam’s List, go leave a review! The good, bad, and ugly are welcomed. We don’t censor around here!

(but if it’s harmful or threatening i hope you can understand if it gets removed)

If ‘your guy’ isn’t on Sam’s List, well, tell them to get on there!